An electric door opening and closing apparatus has been proposed that selectively opens and closes an opening portion (such as a door opening and a tail opening) formed in a vehicle body by moving a door panel through driving force of for example, a motor. In such an opening and closing apparatus, to prevent foreign matter from being caught between the edge of the opening portion and the door panel, a foreign matter detection sensor as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No, 2007-176322 has been proposed for detecting foreign matter located between the edge of the opening portion and the door panel.
The foreign matter detection sensor disclosed in the above-mentioned patent document includes an elongated sensor section that elastically deforms when contacting foreign matter. The sensor section, is mounted on the end portion of the door panel to extend in the vertical direction. A lead wire for supplying current to the sensor section is connected to the lower end of the sensor section. The lead wire extends from the lower end of the sensor section in the longitudinal direction of the sensor section. After being folded back upward at the lower end of the sensor section, the lead wire is drawn into the door panel. That is, after extending downward from the lower end of the sensor section in the longitudinal direction of the sensor section, the lead wire is folded back upward in a substantially U-shape and is drawn into the door panel. According to the above-mentioned foreign matter detection sensor, the foreign matter is detected by the sensor section that elastically deforms by the foreign matter that contacts the sensor section.
The above-mentioned foreign matter detection sensor is arranged such that not only the sensor section but also the lead wire folded back in a substantially U-shape at the lower end of the sensor section is arranged at the end portion of the door panel within a vertical range of the door panel. Therefore, the range in which the sensor section is arranged becomes narrow in the longitudinal direction of the sensor section by the amount corresponding to the lead wire that is folded back in a substantially U-shape at the lower end of the sensor section. As a result, the length of the sensor section is reduced. Since the foreign matter detection sensor is for detecting foreign matter that contacts the sensor section, if the length of the sensor section is reduced, the range in which the foreign matter is detected is undesirably reduced in the longitudinal direction of the sensor section.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a foreign matter detection sensor that has an increased detection range in the longitudinal direction of the sensor section.